Two deals in outsourcing in Belarus and Ukraine

This week two Eastern European outsourcing vendors were in the center of M&A and exit news.

Epam (Belarus) buys Alliance Global Services with 1,200 people

Update: The conditions of the deal with AGS were disclosed in March 2016, its value totalled $51M.

Epam Systems, a high-profile NYSE-traded outsourcing vendor originating from Belarus, just acquired Alliance Global Services, with 1,200 employees, HQ in the US and development centers in Hyderabad and Pune, India. The newly-acquired company has a strong expertise in automating software testing processes, as well as providing development services biotech, healthcare, insurance, and media industries. The conditions of the deal are not public.

CEO of Epam, Arkadiy Dobkin. Epam’s IPO on NYSE

It’s not the first acquisition for Epam, a 22-year-old mastodon of the software development outsourcing industry. In the past few years, the company has been moving in the direction of Product Development services (including product design, development, and market launch). And money gained from the IPO in 2012 allowed the company to finance the acquisition of strategic partners that would strengthen Epam’s expertise and product-driven approach in certain verticals, like healthcare and life sciences, insurance and financial sectors, telecoms). For instance, in July 2015 it bought NavigationArts, a US-based company with a strong expertise in digital strategy, content management systems, and Fortune 500 clients.

Epam’s expected revenue for 2015 is at $905 million. It has development centers in Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Hungary, China, Kazakhstan and India.

George Soros’s Foundation buys shares in Ciklum (Ukraine)

Horizon Capital exits Ciklum

Horizon Capital, a private equity fund from CIS, sold its stake in Ciklum to Ukrainian Redevelopment Fund, owned by George Soros.

Horizon Capital has fully exited its investment from 2012, and in addition to their stake, URF has also bought some shares from Majgaard Holdings Ltd., eponymous to the founder and CEO of Cyklum.

Ciklum, an IT outsourcing company with over 2,500 employees, was founded in 2002. With headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine, it has development centers across regional cities in Ukraine, in Belarus and Pakistan.

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Vita Radkevitch-Turlo

Prior to joining GoalEurope Vita has been working in the IT outsourcing industry in a number of marketing and PR roles. Before that, Vita studied in the US at Bard College and worked in South Korea at SK Securities and the European Union Chamber of Commerce. Speaks fluent Russian, English and French.